English Garden Heart Handwarmers

These Handwarmers were knit from an extra skein (that I saved for myself), of English Garden

Merino/Silk fiber. I had bought 1 lb of this fiber and spun of 6 skeins that I listed on my website www.spinningginny.com and also on http://www.etsy.com/shop/spinningginnys. I had enough left over to make a small skein for myself to knit up this pair of handwarmers with.

This skein was 224 yds, 44 grams. When knitting the first handwarmer, I decided to add a small heart to the back of the handwarmer for an added touch. Because there is silk in this fiber it give the handwarmer a little added sheen.

When taking this picture I didn't realize I had left my stitch marker attached to the cuff. You can see it sort of peeking out from under my wrist. LOL This was the first handwarmer and I'm almost finished with the mate.

Plain Jane Spring time Medley Handwarmers

Earlier this year I carded up a few batts of Springtime Medley Merino. I then listed a couple of

these batts on my website www.spinningginny.com and also on http://www.etsy.com/shop/spinningginnys. I then made up a few batts to spin up into a skein to show how it would look spun up. I listed that skein on both of these sites as well. However, I had a small skein that I kept for myself to knit into these handwarmers.

These Handwarmers show how my Springtime Medley will look knitted up. These handwarmers are also listed on both of these sites. If I do say so myself they are very soft and warm. I might knit myself up a pair one of these days.

I had 144 yds, or 26 grams of this yarn and had enough to make this pair of handwarmers with a little extra left over. I started them on June 24th and finished them on June 26th. Since I didn't have other things to interrupt me, I was able to finish them in a couple of days.

Plain Jane Pine Merino Handwarmers

I started knitting these Handwarmers on Friday June 18th, around 6:30 pm. I didn't bring

them with me to the Summer Solstice June 19th. Then on Fathers Day, my hubby and I spent the day working in the garden (weeding).

So first thing Monday morning I got right back to knitting on them and finished up the first handwarmer that night. Tuesday morning before breakfast, I started working on the mate. Then after breakfast I headed upstairs to do some spinning. Later that night I was able to get back to knitting on them, but the finishing touches would have to wait until the next morning. So on June 23rd I finially finished up the mate. I had originally started out with a small skein of left over Pine Merino (202 yds, 50 grams). When the handwarmers were finished I still had 79 1/2 yds, 20 grams left over.

Summer Solstice 2010, Winchendon Massachusetts

Yesterday was the Annual Summer Solstice, here in Winchendon, MA. My hubby and I arrived

at the Clark Memorial YMCA at a little after 7:00 am to set up my booth. Originally, I was supposed to set up in space number 8, but there was a late sign up and I was moved to space number 7. Which was still the beginning off the row of crafters.

There were races for both adults and children on the track, that went completely around the field, so all the crafters were able to watch. They had a band that was playing through out the day and some games for the kids to play.

Later around noon there was a parade down Central street for all the families to go out and watch. Families were able to take old fashioned pictures, have lunch at one of the many food venders and just have a nice day out with the kids.

There were even some animals at the back of the field for the kids to pet. There were some little chicks, a pig, a sheep, a llama and a few others that I can't remember.

Its was fairly windy that day and so I was having to pick some of my items up off the grass, where the wind had blown them. I had lots of people stop by and look at my items, ask a few questions, and some fellow spinners and knitters. I did make 1 sale that day, but all in all I just plain had fun showing off my handspun yarns, knitted items and handmade soaps.

Horizon Twist Felted Purse

Earlier this year I plied some Horizon Merino with some White Merino, to come up with this yarn. I then washed it and instead of hanging it to dry, I put it into the washing machine on the spin cycle to spin out the remainder of the water. When I took it out later to rewrap the yarn into a skein it was sort of felted together in places. So when I was separating the yarn it broke into several small skeins and a couple of nice size skeins. I knew right then that this yarn would be knitted into a felted purse one day.

Well, yesterday I pulled this yarn off the shelf in my spinning room, and found my size 10 1/2 circular knitting needles and began knitting away on this scarf. I knew that I didn't have a lot of yarn to make a very deep felted purse and I had only just designed a pattern for a different felted purse (Blue & White Felted Purse). I just started following this pattern until I got to the area where I'd begin decreasing for the handles. Once I had decreased for the handles on both sides of the purses I knited only 5 rows instead of 10 rows, as I wanted to make sure I'd have enough yarn to finished the purse. Then I cast back on the stitches that I had decreased to make the handles. I then knited 2 more rows and then bound off, washed the bag in hot soapy water in my washing machine. When it was done washing, I took it out to look at it and found it wasn't felted as much as I wanted, so I rewashed it and it was fine after that. Then I put the purse over some boxes, to get the shape I wanted.

This purse or bag is nice and roomy to hold, things like knitting needles, yarn, measuring tape, and stitch markers. I'm sure that even a small pair of scissors and a cell phone would fit.

Blueface Leicester Lace Scarf

Blueface Leicester Lace Scarf
Originally uploaded by virginiasaccurso@yahoo.com

Last month I went into my spinning room to straighten up. See I get kind of messy when I'm spinning up yarn. I have bags of wool everywhere on my floor. I went around straightening up these bags of wool and came across some Handspun Blueface Leicester that I had frogged from a shawl that I lost stitches on during our move back home from AZ.

So I grabbed up one of these skeins and started looking for some knitting needles to knit a scarf with. I had found a nice Feather and Fan Stitch pattern to make a scarf with and I only changed it up by adding a few more stitches to the pattern to make the scarf wider.

My adventure in spinning pure silk fiber

Having never spun silk by itself, I wanted to give it a try. So when I had a little extra money left over after paying my business bills and mailing off packages to some customers. I was able to purchase this Silk fiber on May 16th, 2010 and it arrived 2 days later. I purchased this fiber from Wildharefibers on Etsy. This silk was called Mulberry Silk top (colorway is River). However, I didn't get around to spinning it until June 6th.

Since I had never spun silk before by itself I just left the roving the way it was and spun it as a single ply yarn. This is what the yarn looked like after I washed it.

This next picture is a closer look at my skein of Single plied Mulberry Silk *River* Top. Spinning this Silk fiber was a pleasure. I definitely want to spin more silk in the future.

This fiber spun up into a 381 yard and 42 gram skein. Then I decided to knit this yarn into this Scarf.

I still had plenty of yarn left over after making this scarf to make another one, just like it.

The only deference from the 2 scarves is that the second one if more varriegated then the first scarf. Both scarves are very soft and silky weight approximately 1 oz each.

I can't wait for my next adventure in spinning silk!

Navajo plying left over singles

I had some left over single ply Colonial Wedgewood Blue on a bobbin and really needed to empty up some bobbins for future spinning. I figured that I'd do a little Navajo plying with this yarn, since I hadn't Navajo plied in a long time.

So I put an empty bobbin on my spinning wheel and tied one end of the Colonial Wedgewood Blue Single to my leader. Then I made a slip knot and started treadling and continued making some slip knots as the new yarn twisted and wound onto the empty bobbin. Each slip not I made was fairly long and made what now looked like 3 plys of yarn together being twisted into a nice yarn. This picture here is what the yarn looked like after I was finished and had washed it.

When I was finished with the Colonial Wedgewood Blue Navajo plied yarn, I pulled out a bobbin with some Dark Coopworth left on it and started Navajo plying it. This picture here is what the yarn looked like after I was finished and had washed it. Now I have 2 more empty bobbins that I can use for future spinning.

I have some other colored singles that I might Navajo ply to empty up some more bobbins. There won't be as much yarn to use like these skeins have, but I can still use each small amount to make some that would be multi-colored.